I am an Ableton user, but on Danny’s advice, I’m looking into using another DAW solely for the purpose of mixing. I would be writing and arranging in Ableton, then exporting the stems to mix in another DAW. The Prime version of Studio one says it has unlimited audio tracks, groups and sends. I already have Fabfilter Soundtoys, UAD, and loads of other third party plugins. Is it too good to be true that there is actually a free Daw that would suffice to just use for mixing?

I’d definitely run the demo sh_chan, before you make the plunge. I really like Studio One quite alot but spent the money on it only to be disappointed in the end with its lack of efficient cpu handling for my needs. studio one doesn’t play nice with high third party plugin and track counts for alot of people. I ended up going back to Logic where the cpu handling is much better.

I also produce in Ableton and do mixdown in Logic. Ableton is well capable for mixdown as well but I don’t care for its routing scheme personally. Its all down to taste of course, but its nice to be able to demo software before spending money on it. Danny really seems to like Cubase, you might see if there is a demo for it as well.

Yea Logic is nice BUT in the long run you might start wanting more from your daw and end up needing to spend extra money to buy and extra time to learn a new daw. So I think it is better to invest in the best possible daw (for you) from the getgo [if you got the cash] and then stick with it.

Interesting…The full Studio One is not that much more than Logic, and I have heard that there are some great mastering features in it. Are any others that are particularly useful to know about in making the decision?